Cheap, fun synth

[Jeff Schwartz <jeffs@bgnet.bgsu.edu>]

I've had this gizmo about a month and finally used it on a 
gig, so I thought I'd report to y'all.
I am refering to the Boss SYB-3 Bass Synthesizer pedal. 
Some freak at Roland put an oscillator and an envelope 
filter in a stompbox. No special pickup is 
required-tracking is OK on guitar & bass. Oddly, it covers 
the same range on both-the bottom 2 1/2 octaves. If you 
play more than one note at once it warbles interestingly, 
much like a Whammy pedal. I ran the SYB-3 into the Whammy 
to increase its range and it sounds pretty good with the 1 
or 2 octave up settings.
I haven't run anything except guitar and bass through it, 
but I bet miked horns or vocals could produce some pretty 
sick sounds.
There have been reviews in Guitar Player & Bass Player 
that give details of the features, so I just thought I'd 
give my account of using it.
It's very cool for getting some basic analog synth sounds, 
especially on the 70s P-Funk tip. The wave shape modes get 
a neat fuzz sound-like overdriving a 4-track or a stereo. 
This and the T-wah mode work over the whole range.
I was able to use the wave shape instead of an overdrive 
for leads & the t-wah sounded very cool on scratchy funk 
octaves. The envelope filter sounds better on the synth 
sounds than in the t-wah mode and, in that mode, kicks ass 
on every pedal filter I've heard except for the Lovetone 
Meatball.
I got this gizmo for $160-money well spent. The main 
drawback is that its hard to adjust on stage. There's no 
memory-you just need to twist knobs and hope for the best. 
Also, the 7 synth modes are pretty similar except for the 
2 that give an octave down and the three that mix noise 
into the sound-the sine, square, and sawtooth waves sound 
a lot alike.
So, it doesn't have nearly the flexability of a low-end 
Moog or even an old Roland GR-300, but it's pretty fun...
-- 
Jeff Schwartz
jeffs@bgnet.bgsu.edu
http://www.bgsu.edu/~jeffs/main.html